Trump, automakers meet on emissions

START YOUR ENGINES: Competing voices will be on full display today, while President Donald Trump meets with automakers who will plead their case on fuel efficiency standards. The goal for automakers: Beat back the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's strict plan and persuade the White House to reach a compromise with California. Top executives from Ford, General Motor and Toyota, as well as the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Global Automakers, will warn that NHTSA's plan would lead to a market split, creating uncertainty across the country.

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Wait, what's going on? The Transportation Department, which found itself in the backseat during the Obama administration, has switched roles with EPA under Trump, meaning NHTSA has been driving the internal debate over what to do about the Obama-era rules, Pro's Eric Wolff reports. "Under Obama, EPA set the [greenhouse gas] standard, and NHTSA had to harmonize with it," said a source who opposes the weakening the standards. "Under Trump, NHTSA is using the CAFE standard as the locomotive, and EPA’s GHG standards will be the caboose."

Automakershave said the Obama rules are too onerous for them to meet, but they also worry the Trump administration may go too far. The most aggressive option now under consideration would freeze fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels and revoke California's authority to set its own greenhouse gas limits on tailpipe emissions. If that were to move forward, the administration would find itself in a legal battle with California and a host of states, who have prevailed in court in the past. Most in the industry do support tighter standards for the coming years, but phased in over a longer time period — an argument they'll try to make to Trump today. Read more here.

MAIL CALL! CAFE EDITION: Ahead of today's meeting, three members of the Trump transition wrote to the president asking him to stay the course on the CAFE standards. “Your efforts to reform this mandate are about cost, consumer choice, and whether or not your administration or the State of California gets to set a national policy,” Myron Ebell, who led the transition at EPA; Shirley Ybarra at Transportation; and Thomas Pyle at DOE write in a letter.

But in their own letter, environmental leaderswrote to automakers, calling on them to “stand with the majority of Americans who want cleaner, more fuel efficient cars and cleaner air.” And, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey called on companies Thursday to keep the fuel economy emissions standards that they previously negotiated in his own letter here.

HAPPY FRIDAY! I'm your host Kelsey Tamborrino. The American Lung Association’s Paul Billings was the first to correctly guess Olympia Snowe was the first lady of Maine while she simultaneously served in the House. For today: Which president signed the bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday? Send your tips, energy gossip and comments to ktamborrino@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @kelseytam, @Morning_Energy and @POLITICOPro.

PENTAGON WARNS AGAINST FLORIDA DRILLING: The Pentagon is expected to release a report today that says an expansion of oil and gas drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico would harm military flexibility in the area and would severely affect training activities. The study, obtained by POLITICO, says that opening up Florida waters for energy development — as the Trump administration has proposed, and then walked back — would lead to a “less acceptable and less prepared military force.” Pro's Anthony Adragna reports that preparation of the report has “held up” House consideration of a pending energy package H.R. 4239 (115) that is being eyed as a possible vehicle to advance a permanent drilling ban in the Eastern Gulf. Read more.

MURKOWSKI: NOT AT EMERGENCY LEVEL YET: Senate Energy Chairman Lisa Murkowski signaled that she didn’t believe the grid was facing an emergency that could justify an intervention to prop up coal-fired and nuclear power plants, Anthony reports. “We’re not at national emergencies levels, but again making sure that the grid is resilient ... has got to be an imperative for us,” she said. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has said he is considering using the 1950 Defense Production Act to designate such struggling plants as essential to national security.

WAIT AND SEE ON DOE LOAN CUTS: Murkowski also said Thursday she was not ready to support the White House’s rescissions request until she could gather whether the spending cuts would not also mean an elimination for some DOE-related programs. Murkowski reiterated that it “makes sense” to eliminate the $4.33 billion for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, which has been dormant for years. But she said she needed to hear more about the administration's proposal to cut $684 million remaining in a separate clean energy loan guarantee program.

Murkowski's comments echo several other GOP spending chiefs, who have cast doubt on Trump’s proposed list of cutbacks, saying they’re not yet ready to bury some of the targeted programs. Long-time appropriators tell Pro's Sarah Ferris and Kaitlyn Burton "they’re skeptical of the administration’s efforts to fast-track cuts to programs they aren't ready to kill, like rural infrastructure, clean energy and even a relatively new initiative that lets states use cash from unfinished earmarks projects." Read it here.

AND THE (INVESTIGATE) BEAT ROLLS ON: The House Oversight Committee has interviews scheduled next week with two more of Scott Pruitt’s inner circle, a committee aide tells ME. The aide declined to identify the two sitting for transcribed interviews, but Chairman Trey Gowdy has requested sit-downs with Ryan Jackson, Pruitt's chief of staff; Millan Hupp, a scheduling and advance aide; Sarah Greenwalt, a senior counsel to Pruitt; Kevin Chmielewski, a former deputy chief of staff turned whistleblower; and Samantha Dravis, former top policy advisor to Pruitt. The committee spoke with Pruitt’s former security chief, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, last week.

NEW DETAILS FROM ROME: New York Times' reporters Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman detailed new documents Thursday that paint a different picture of Pruitt's trip to Rome than previously reported. Documents obtained through FOIA show that Pruitt dined at a 5-star restaurant with Australian Cardinal George Pell — a climate change skeptic — even though agency staff knew he was under investigation for child sex abuse. "The Cardinal's name is not included in schedules released at least so far under FOIA," Lipton tweeted. See the NYT docs here.

— Still, deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters Thursday the president is still "pleased" with Pruitt's job performance. "However the issues that have been raised ... they have raised some concerns and we are hopeful and expecting that administrator Pruitt will be able to answer those," he said, according to the pool report. Read more.

— Vice President Mike Pence defended Pruitt's record but did not address questions related to the scandals around him in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Thursday. "Scott Pruitt has done an outstanding job lifting the burden of regulations that were stifling American businesses across this country. We really do believe that much of the economic growth that we've seen over the last 15 months has been as much a result of deregulation as its been with the tax reforms that are just now beginning to have an impact on the economy," Pence said. "So we're very grateful for Scott Pruitt's leadership."

HOUSE GOP FIGHTS CALIFORNIA GAS TAX: House Republicans are pouring thousands of dollars into a California ballot initiative to repeal a 2017 state gas tax hike, Pro’s Lauren Gardner reports. The ballot measure would let voters in the state decide on a rollback of a state law known as S.B. 1 that raised the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon. Many California House Republicans — including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — have mobilized in support of the ballot measure. Their effort may spell trouble for the Trump administration’s call for states to cough up more of their own money for infrastructure, Lauren reports.

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WAIT FOR LATER: Senate EPW’s top Democrat Tom Carpersaid he's spoken to Chairman John Barrasso, who “is not prepared to hold oversight hearings with Scott Pruitt at this time." But, while he might have told Carper he has no immediate plans to bring Pruitt to the Hill, Barrasso expects to hold a hearing with the EPA chief at some point this year. “He plans to call Administrator Pruitt up for a second time later this year,” a spokesman said. “He will continue to closely monitor and conduct oversight of EPA.”

NOT YUCCA-ING IT UP: Wasting little time after the House overwhelmingly passed broad nuclear waste legislation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto in noting the bill, H.R. 3053 (115), would not pass the Senate. “We will continue to make sure that any effort to restart this project fails,” the duo said in a statement. Of course, John Shimkus himself predicted the Senate wouldn’t touch the bill this year as Nevada Republican Dean Heller faces what’s expected to be a tight reelection contest.

THE SOLICITOR SHUFFLE: Ryan Nelson has withdrawn his candidacy for Interior’s solicitor, the White House said Thursday, instead nominating Nelson for circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Pro’s Ben Lefebvre reports more here.

MORENOMS: The White House nominated Gordon Sondland to be ambassador to the European Union for atomic energy, coal and steel. Sondland is the founder and CEO of Aspen Lodging Group in Portland, Ore. He also managed the investment fund Aspen Group and served on the advisory board of U.S. Bancorp for more than a decade.

MORRISEY SPEAKS TO TRUMP: Republican candidate for West Virginia Senate, Patrick Morrisey, said Thursday he spoke with the president, who offered "his full support and endorsement." ME readers will recall that before speaking to the victor, Trump had reached out to Don Blankenship and Rep. Evan Jenkins, who both lost in the primary.

EDF FILES FOIA SUIT: The Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Thursday against Interior for failing to respond to FOIA requests concerning the proposal to reverse the methane waste prevention rule. The group filed records requests in November for communications between DOI and oil and gas companies and trade associations on the rule — the comment period for which ended in April. Throughout that period, EDF says, Interior failed to respond to its requests.

NEW TECH REPLACES GHG WITH OXYGEN: Apple announced a joint venture Thursday with aluminum companies Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminum to commercialize patented technology that rids greenhouse gas emissions from the smelting process, instead releasing oxygen. Apple and the companies are also joined by the governments of Canada and Quebec to collectively invest $144 million to future research and development.

COMPLIANCE COSTS: Four Democratic lawmakers signed onto a letter Thursday, calling out Pruitt for still not handing over the required Antideficiency Act report related to his private phone booth. The Government Accountability Office previously found EPA violated the Act by failing to notify Congress about its cost. Sens. Tom Udall and Carper, along with Reps. Betty McCollum and Peter DeFazio, write that EPA has yet to transmit the "statutorily-required report" and called the notification they had received from the agency's CFO "incomplete." They also list other expenditures that go above the cumulative $5,000 threshold that would require advance notification to Congress. Read the letter here.

MOVER, SHAKER: Josh Kurtz is now working full-time on his nonprofit Maryland political news website, Maryland Matters, which he launched last March. It now has a small staff and he told us he's “jumping in full time to try to make it bigger and better.” He spent the last few months of his tenure at E&E News as a reporter on Climatewire but before that was E&E Daily editor for seven years.

— New officers were elected Thursday to the Utilities Technology Council, including the election of Roger Bryant as its new chairman of the board. Bryant is IT project manager for telecom services at Southern Company Services and succeeds Kathy Nelson of Great River Energy. UTC members also elected Greg Angst, engineer in the telecom design group at CenterPoint Energy, as its vice chair; and Kevin Huff, telecommunications operations manager at Salt River Project, as its secretary/treasurer.

QUICK HITS

— Entergy confirms actors were paid to support New Orleans power plant, says it was unaware, The Times-Picayune.

— Top EPA official Bill Wehrum secretly lobbied the agency before his confirmation, ThinkProgress.

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About The Author

Kelsey Tamborrino is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro.

Before joining POLITICO, she was a communications intern at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an editorial intern at Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and an online editorial intern at Men’s Health magazine.

In spring 2015, Tamborrino graduated from the Pennsylvania State University, where she studied print journalism, English and international studies. At Penn State, Tamborrino was the managing editor of Penn State’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, for the 2014-15 academic year. She also studied British politics and English literature in Leeds, England, where she studied abroad at the University of Leeds.